Skip to main content

Players cannot join

Your server is online, you can join, and a friend gets Failed to login: Invalid session or Failed to verify username and never gets in. The console shows nothing useful: on new versions one line saying the account could not be verified, on old versions only a lost connection.

What is happening​

A Minecraft server in online mode asks Mojang to verify every account at login. A launcher without a Microsoft login (a "cracked" or offline launcher, or a player who is not signed in) cannot pass that check, so the server drops the login before the player ever loads the world.

FadeHost watches for those dropped logins. After a few of them in ten minutes the server page shows a Players could not log in banner with the names it saw, and the owner gets one alert a day if alerts are set up.

The two fixes​

Both are one button on the banner and restart a running server:

  • Login protection (every server): the door in front of your server lets those players register a password and log in with it, while verified accounts keep logging in as usual. Names stay safe from impersonation. This is the same switch as Settings → Login protection.
  • Allow offline accounts (paid servers): switches account verification off entirely, so anyone can join under any name. Only do this on a whitelisted or private server. This is the same switch as Settings → Game → Online mode.

Free and trial servers keep verification on, so they get the login protection button only.

Not the problem? Dismiss for a week hides the banner; it comes back if new dropped logins keep arriving after that.